Remote locations need vaccine fast

THE supply chain of suitable vaccines and ensuring the most vulnerable cohorts of people gain access – especially in the state’s most isolated areas – are the biggest challenges facing Tasmania’s rollout of the COVID-19 jab.

That is according to Queenstown general practitioner Dennis Pashen, who says the complex and sometimes chronic health issues facing people in rural and remote locations underline the importance of getting the vaccine as quickly as possible.

Prof Pashen, the medical co-ordinator for the Tasmanian branch of Ochre Health who will be involved in administering the vaccine, said access to the jab was the key issue facing the state.

He said he believed the state was well equipped to roll out a mass vaccination program, but said he doubted government timelines for the rollout would be achieved because of the availability of vaccines internationally.

“Ultimately we’re looking at (having) 80-85 per cent of the population who’ve either had (coronavirus) and are immune or have been vaccinated and are immune,’’ he said.

“That’s where you get your herd immunity. (But) that could take a few years actually.”

But Prof Pashen said in certain high-risk communities, it was possible to achieve that relatively quickly.

“You’ve got 4000 people on the West Coast – you can get 3800 of them vaccinated within a few months,’’ he said.

“Queenstown has a really interesting population of the elderly, old mining families, a lot of them with chronic disease. The elderly and at-risk in the community are fairly aware of the advantages (of the vaccine) and the majority of them I’ve spoken to are very much in favour.”

Ochre Health, which operates four GP clinics on the West Coast, and in Hobart, Smithton, King Island, Flinders Island, Scottsdale and St Helens, is gearing up for the rollout of the jab.

General practices will be involved from phase 1B of the vaccination program, with phase 1A to be delivered only in the state’s three major hospitals.

Ochre Health’s director of medical services and Rural Doctors Association of Australia president John Hall said practices were exploring hiring a surge workforce to manage the influx of patients.

“One of the challenges we’re dealing with is going to be logistics of [storing] that vaccine but also remembering that this is coinciding with the time of year we would normally do the flu vaccine as well,” he said.

Tasmanian Vaccinations Operations Centre commander Dale Webster said the first tranche of the rollout was on track to start later this month at the state’s three biggest hospitals in Hobart, Launceston and Burnie.

“All Tasmanians can be confident the vaccines are safe and no shortcuts have been taken in the approval process,’’ he said.